Volume 7 / Act 1 — SCENE IV
Reading edition
PRINCE (alone).
Where am I? Was that a scene from the Arabian Nights? Or am I really on the banks of that homely river Spree which flows into the Havel? Of a truth this Prussian Court with its queer pigtails and gaiters is more romantic than I had thought. Laharpe down there behind the flower-pots! Laharpe tête-à-tête with a Princess who visits the kitchen and with a linnet which—happy bird—is privileged to bite her fingers. How beautiful she is—much fairer than the miniature Frederick wears next his heart! And yet I had fallen in love with this miniature. [Looks about him.] There is a spell that seems to hold me in these rooms, through which she glides like the Genius of the bower. [Goes to the window.] Down there in the square, the bayonets of the parading troops flash in the sunlight—and that door over yonder leads to the apartments of a Princess whose possession would mean the highest bliss earth can afford. And there—whither leads that door through which the kind guardian of this paradise disappeared?
[He turns toward the second door at the back, to his right.]
SONNSFELD (comes in quickly, excitedly).
Away Prince—away, the Queen is approaching.
PRINCE.
The Queen? Where shall I go?
SONNSFELD.
Into that room over there—you may find some way out—no one must see you here.
[She pushes him to an opposite side-door.]
PRINCE.
My knowledge of the territory is growing rapidly. [He goes out.]